As hoped, the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path welcomed Bi-Gon-Dang as their spiritual brother and offered hospitality to him and his friends. Over the next several weeks, Bi-Gon-Dang trained Sum-Dank in the ways of the Savage Tiger, a martial arts form that relied on sudden burst of raw strength to subdue one's opponents. Sum-Dank learned to use his nekode-- a strange claw-like weapon or climbing implement that he had inherited from a mysterious grandfather-- to master the grapple-and-throw techniques of the style. Because weapons were completely banned from Pasar, knowledge of a martial art seemed likely to come in handy.
While Sum-Dank was training, Bat, Bojing, and Sukh got to know the city of Pasar. Their young friend Bug became something of a liability to the trio of warriors, as they strove to be good role models while prowling gambling dens and drinking houses.
Enter the Seven Zhounese Brothers. These were deserters from the Imperial Army who, according to rumor, were rejected by the Black Flowers because they were too vicious. Maybe just too drunk. Regardless, even worse role models for Bug and thus, all the more appealing.
When Bug wasn't seen at the Monastery for a day, his guardians asked some questions and found out where the Seven Zhounese Brothers lived-- a run-down, two-story warehouse that had been built by the Silk Merchants Guild when they first established business in Pasar.
Waiting for dark, Bug's friends made a plan and went out to rescue him.
The rescuers:
Sukh, level 2 bushi
Bojing, level 1 samurai
Sum-Dank, level 3 bushi and his adviser/trainer, Bi-Gon-Dang, level 1monk
While they were staking out the house, an oddly-dressed man walked by, quietly laughing to himself. He stopped suddenly and addressed them. "Why not go inside? I'm sure they'll be glad to see you."
Sukh and Sum-Dank were half-surprised, half-outraged and peppered the man with questions. He laughed and started walking. They blinked and he was gone.
The house was surrounded by a low wall without an obvious gate, but easily climbed. Once inside the yard, dogs started barking. There was light in the top floor of the house but not obvious way to reach the front door. The stairs leading up to it had crumbled into rubble. On the bottom floor, the warehouse doors were boarded up, but looked like they could be broken down.
Bojing, Sum-Dank, and Sum-Dank found the weakest of the warehouse doors and began pulling at the hinges. Inside the dogs, started barking like crazy. With a little work, the entire door was pulled off and fell flat on the ground. The dogs charged out. One caught Bi-Gon-Dang by surprise, knocking him down and seizing him by the throat. The rest of the party were surrounded by snarling, snapping dogs. Sum-Dank seized one dog and slammed it to the ground, but another seized this opportunity to rip into his leg. Bojing pulled some cooked meat from Sum-Dank's ration bag and, with it, managed to distract one of the dogs, but the others seemed hungry for fresh food. Sukh fought his way towards Bi-Gon-Dang, still struggling on the ground, but without any weapons but a small knife, the rabid dogs were not easily intimidated.
When Bi-Gon-Dang stopped struggling, his friends gave him up for dead and ran to save their own lives. As they reached the hedge wall, the front door opened on the top story and the Brothers hurled curses and bricks.
The next night, sad, bitter, and nursing dog bites, the rescuers returned to the house with a new companion and a better plan.
They went to the back of the house and Sum-Dank. No barking. He heard the snores of content, sleeping dogs, and upstairs, the noise of bickering brothers. Staying well away from the entrance to dogs' lair, Sum-Dank climbed up the side of the house to the roof. The roof was in poor shape. Light shone through the shingles and there were gaping hole in several places. He pin-pointed where the Brothers were inside the house-- in a room near the front of the house, drinking and playing dice. Sum-Dunk tied a rope to a cross beam and dropped it for his friends to climb up. Together, they decided, that Sukh and Bojing would climb down to the landing in front of the front door. They would knock and when they did, Sum-Dank would climb down into the house and either find Bug or attack the brothers form behind r otherwise cause havoc.
Everything went more-or-less according to plan. The brothers first ignored the knocking and then began yelling threats and insults. Plenty of commotion to cover Sum-Dank as he climbed down into a room in the back of the house. This was the worst room of the house and of course Bug was found there. He was scared, hungry and beaten, curled up in moldy blankets. He started to cry when he saw Sum-Dank.
The noise might have attracted the Brothers if they weren't yelling so loud themselves. At last they decided, together, to go open the door, and thrash those &$%*!s. Bojing and Sukh started to climb down the front of the house. Slipping on the loose brickwork, they reached the ground well before the Brothers had opened the door. After giving the Brothers a chance to scream challenges and throw the most hand pieces of brick into the street, Bo Jing and Sukh pulled themselves up, rubbed their sprained ankles and hobbled toward out of the yard as fast as they could. Sum-Dank and Bug, meanwhile, climbed back out of the house, and made their own escape.
Bug's disappearance was soon discovered. "Good riddance! I was about to kill that whiny brat!"
No comments:
Post a Comment